Surdna Foundation Commits $100M to Impact Investments

The Surdna Foundation plans to put $100 million of its roughly $1 billion endowment into investments that seek both financial and social returns.

"The investments are an experiment," Shuaib Siddiqui, director of impact investing at Surdna, said. "We’re carving out this $100 million pool of capital to figure out: Can we continue to meet the needs of the foundation, our commitment to grant making, but also invest in a mission-aligned way and generate the returns we need to generate?"

The New York family foundation plans to dedicate $18 million of the money to investments that are closely in line with the goals of its three grant-making programs: strong local economies, sustainable environments and thriving cultures.